I wasn’t sure, but I found this: Yes, you can register your name as a trademark provided the Trademark Office of your country or the country for which you are seeking protection considers it “distinctive.” As to whether a name is distinctive or not depends on a variety of factors. As a rule of thumb, the more common…

Damn, that sucks. The districts in my home county pay extremely well compared to the rest of the country. I’d tell everyone to go there, but then there’d be no jobs.

He reminds me of Hoggle from the Labyrinth, except an evil version of Hoggle. I actually found real Hoggle kind of cute.

Including financially!

Yes! I believe countries with access to safe, legal abortions also have lower abortion rates.

Great idea! They have volunteers to drive animals from kill shelters to no-kill rescues; why not have some kind of chain to help women get to abortion clinics?

I asked my doctor, and he was going to prescribe it, but then he called the pharmacist to see if it would be okay based on my health issues. The pharmacist said no. Even progestin-only pills can increase your risk of blood clots, and I already have an increased risk due to my lupus, so they didn’t want me to take it.

Ugh, that’s terrible! I wanted a tubal, but I just went in for the consultation a few weeks ago, and it turns out I am not a candidate. I can’t have Essure because they have to do an HSG with dye to check to see if it worked (I can’t have contrast dye because I have kidney disease). I’m not a candidate for an IUD…

From Health Affairs:

Actually, they don’t make much money on vaccines. A lot of companies don’t even do vaccine research anymore because it’s just not profitable.

Editor here. It actually depends on which style you follow. In some styles it’s Banks’s, and in others it’s Banks’. If you’re just writing a comment online and not following any particular style, it really doesn’t matter.

I feel like using that line on my (very conservative) mother when she’s bitching about how Obama wants to take her guns away. “Well, if you have nothing to hide, a simple background check should be no problem!”

Agreed. That dark red looks awful with her skin tone.

USoT is absolutely my favorite show, and Brie’s character was excellent. I’ve watched it through about five times, but I might join you in another viewing.

It seems like this is taking forever. I can’t watch because I don’t have cable (so I can’t watch the livestream on ABC.com; you have to log in with an account from a cable provider), so I keep checking to see who won best actress/actor. It’s already 11:22 on the East Coast, and they still haven’t been announced!

Unfortunately, no. We JUST moved here five months ago. It has to be something that’s sprouting now, as I wasn’t like this until just a week or so ago (maybe Juniper as Isilzha mentioned). I like it here, and I would never be able to go back to PA.

I just discovered I am HIGHLY allergic to my new town (Albuquerque). My eyes have been really dry, but I take a bunch of medications, and I also have lupus, so I figured it was a side effect or symptom. Well, I just went to California for a few days. My eye bothered me all the way through New Mexico, Arizona, and some…

Oops. Thought I was in the SNS thread.

They’re best friends IRL.

That would be wonderful, but I have serious medical problems. I can’t use the pill because I have hypertension, and I can’t even use the progestin-only pill because I also have lupus, which gives me an elevated risk of blood clots. I looked into Essure, but I can’t have an HSG with contrast dye (because I have kidney…